14km Sri Chinmoy Centennial Park Cross Country Run

I did this run last year as well and as I was at the start line, I remembered that it was painfully hot the previous year. Standing at the start line, I also quickly realized that it was much hotter this year!

This was easily one of my toughest runs even though I have run much longer distances than 14km before, the combination of heat and my lack of long distance fitness made it a grueling task to finish the race, which I did in 1h 34m.

Had to bring out the cap, sun glasses and sun screen for this one

Slow time! but glad I finished.

10km Sun Herald Run4Fun

I completed the 10km Sun Herald Run4Fun yesterday on a very interesting course around Sydney Olympic Park with a finish inside ANZ stadium. It was my fastest 10km to date and I managed to finish it in 57m 27s, I was pretty happy to cut 2 mins off my time from two weeks ago at the St George Beach Side Dash.

There were around 8000 runners taking part and I was expecting a very crowded run, but the roads were wide enough to not cause any congestion. It was a windy and largely flat course with a very memorable finish where you go though a tunnel and run into the ANZ stadium after which you have a 100m dash to the finish line over the grass. I believe its the same finish the Sydney 2000 Olympic Marathon athletes also experienced so it was pretty cool to be able to follow in their famous footsteps.

I've never focused on running quick times rather my focus has always been on running longer distances, but its been interesting to try and push myself to run faster on shorter distances. I averaged around 5m 41s per km during this run which I'm really happy with, but still lots of room to improve. I still had a lot in the tank after I finished so I could have pushed a bit more I feel.

My next run is a 14km cross country run in 3 weeks time so looking forward to some strong times there too.

Here are some pics from yesterday.

The Finish in ANZ Stadium

My Finish Time and Position

10km St George Beach Side Dash

I completed the 10km St George Beach side Dash on 21 October which was a bright and sunny Sunday. It was not my fastest 10km but I managed to finish it in 59m 37s. I had done this run before in 2007 and finished that in 52m, although I think that route was a bit shorter than 10 km.

This is a very nice route which runs alongside the beach, but its a bit windy and a very flat course. Flat and long courses are in my opinion harder to run on as they can get boring and it can demoralise you to see a long, flat distance between you and the finish line, but if you manage to get into a "stride" you can blaze fast times on these types of courses, unfortunately I didn't even get close to a stride and struggled after the 7km mark. This was my first race in more than 8 months so I'm sure that had something to do with it too.

Anyhow I'm still not very happy with my 10km times and have set a goal to push my speeds to hit sub 55 min on this distance.

I have another 10km race coming up this Sunday so let's see what happens :)

JUST DO IT!

My Time..